How to Sign Up

You MUST have a Dreamwidth (DW) account to participate. The HSWC takes place on DW and you cannot participate without one. To make an account and learn how to use it, please click here.

Absolutely everyone is welcome to join the HSWC. If you have any artistic talent—writing, visual art or animation, music, graphic design, voice acting, sculpting, cosplaying, fanmixing, game or website design, crocheting, mixing drinks, baking, or something not on this list—you are welcome to participate. Even if you don't want to produce fanwork for the HSWC, you can still participate by joining Team Noir.

The total participant cap across all teams is 1,000 members. However, Team Noir has no member cap, so even if this number is reached, you can still participate in the HSWC by joining Team Noir.

All you do is go to the sign up site and follow these steps:

Look at the sign up site's team roster. The roster is constantly updated so that you can see what teams exist; who is on what team; what teams are full, have room for more members, or need more members to qualify for the event; and which teams have or need Friendleaders. Feel free to peruse the roster and use the information there to help inform your sign up choices!

Your e-mail address. It should be one you check regularly. It will be shared with your Friendleader so that they can contact you, but it will never be posted publicly.

What team you'd like to join or create. In previous years, the sign up form asked for your top five preferred teams. As of HSWC 2014 you nominate a single team to join. However, once you have created an initial sign up, you will be able to freely change your team assignment via the sign up form as many times as you wish until sign ups close, so you can be sure that you'll be on a team you'll be happy with.

Any noteworthy content tags or warnings that you would like to add and are not already listed in the content tags list.

Please note that the major content tags are used to warn for content that may be potentially upsetting and is not a place for sarcastic comments or jokes. Misuse of this tag request form may result in your removal from the Homestuck Shipping World Cup.

After you submit your sign up, you'll know it's confirmed if you can see your DW username on the team roster.

You can only sign up with one DW account and participate on one team in the HSWC. (Trust us, you won't have the energy for more than one.) You also can't sign up for your friends, because they have to use their own DW account to join a team. Having more than one dreamwidth account active in the HSWC may cause you to be removed from the event. For more information, read this.

You can edit your sign up (typos, wrong e-mail, switch teams, changing FL status, etc.) by simply signing up for the event again; you won't lose your spot on your team (unless you're switching teams). You'll be able to edit your sign up as many times as you like until sign ups close. After the sign up period, you'll have to use the Switching Teams protocol to change teams, or contact the mods directly to fix a problem with your sign up.

Creating a New Team

If you don't see the team you want on the roster, you are more than welcome to start it yourself! (For more information on what ship teams are acceptable, see Teams.) You can advertise and recruit people to join your team before and during sign ups (check the HSWCtumblr tags or hswc-team-ads for the latest gossip). As long as your team meets the five participant minimum before sign ups close, your ship team is cleared to compete.

There's a spot on the sign up form to indicate whether you would like to be your team's friendleader. You don't have to be your new team's friendleader if you don't want to. For more info, click here.

You MUST format your ship team name as seen here. If you mess up you can fix it on the sign up site, but it's best to get it right the first time!

Teams are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. The first thirteen people to sign up for a team are on that team. We encourage you to advertise for your team and talk to each other before the HSWC starts, but participants cannot "reserve" a spot on a team except through explicitly signing up and appearing on the team roster list. Participants also cannot know for certain that they are a team's FL until it is explicitly stated as such on the team roster. Lastly, people cannot "turn away" others from teams that have less than 13 members on the official team roster list—the only reason someone could not join a team is if that team has reached the 13-person cap, again, on the official team roster. Do not try to independently hold spots, build "preliminary team rosters," declare friendleadership when it is not confirmed by the official roster, turn people away from your team, or become angry if you are not chosen as the team FL: it goes against the spirit of the event.

Joining Team Abstrata, Themed Teams, or Team Noir

If you want to join Team Noir, Team Abstrata, or a Themed Team, simply type the team name in the same as you would for any other team.

If you are the first member of a themed team and it isn't yet on the roster, write it into the appropriate text box to create the team.

If Abstrata must split into sub-teams, the first group of 13 team members will be sorted into the first team, the second group into the second team, etc. The first person to volunteer for friendleadership will be FL for the first team, the second volunteer will be FL for the second team, etc.

If you sign up for Abstrata before it splits into sub-teams, keep an eye on the team roster. If you don't like the team you're placed on once sub-teams are created, you can switch which sub-team you're on throughout the sign up period. After the sign up period, however, the teams are fixed and you must follow team switching protocols.

Teams Under Five Participants

If your team does not reach five members before the sign up period closes, your team will not qualify to participate in the HSWC.

If you're on a team that's too small, you will have from May 9-11 to switch to another team that has qualified for the event (including Abstrata, a Themed team, or Noir). If you do not select during this time, you will be automatically placed in Team Noir.